Our Little Jumping Bean

We went to the doctor last week hoping to hear the baby's heart beat but she couldn't find it so we ended up getting another ultrasound. As soon as she started the ultrasound our cute little plum (soon to be peach) jumped. It was so cute and now the baby no longer looks like a gummy bear.

We told the rest of our friends in St. Louis last weekend and had such a fun weekend. The whole weekend almost felt like a race to see how many people we could see before heading back to Denver. This past week really has been no different. Boy am I glad it is spring break! The week was full of meetings, a sick dog, James working obscene hours, and crazy kids at school. There was even a countdown of the hours left of the day in the faculty bathroom. I'm going to relax, catch up on some sleep, get some new clothes (I'm already using the band from Target), and we are going to San Diego on Wednesday. It's just going to be nice to have a little time.

We went out to a nice dinner and had time to actually talk and relax. I'm feeling better now and am still up at 8:44 p.m. on a Friday night!

Have a great weekend and happy Spring.

Grateful

I haven't been feeling too good lately with lots of indegestion and just feeling exhausted. By the end of the day I just don't want to hear my name anymore and all I can think about is getting home to the couch and snuggie! It should get better anytime though. I'm going to the doctor this coming Friday and we get to hear the heartbeat. We didn't get to hear it with our ultrasound last time. James has been the best husband I could ever ask for! One night I was craving something to drink besides water, milk, or orange juice, so he went to the store and brought home all five flavors of a low calorie sport's drink. He actually went to the store a few nights in a row to get me things. He has been stressed out at work and working a lot of overtime but he still comes home with a smile on his face and caters to my needs. What a great guy!

We are headed to St. Louis this weekend after the doctor's appointment. We are excited to see family and friends. I'm just trying to make it through this week and really it is a short week for me. Only one more week of school and then I get a spring break. I hope it gets here fast.

We are putting an offer in on a house tomorrow morning and we just can't wait to get our baby stuff out and start nesting.

Have a great week everyone.

Houses

We have finally decided to expand our search area to the suburbs. With baby C on the way we are thinking that we need some space. We were searching in a beautiful area of Denver with older homes. We finally came to reality when we looked at the last house in this area. The house was more than we wanted to spend and didn't meet our needs at all. It claimed to have three bedrooms; however, the third bedroom was in the basement. Let me say that it was a scary basement with huge white pipes hanging from the low ceiling. We are going to have a lot of family and friends visit and I couldn't imagine sticking anyone down there to sleep. The first floor of the house was georgous but still small. It also only had one car garage without a garage opener. We thought about baby stuff, bikes, etc., and realized there would be no room for storage. We have decided on the suburb where I teach because it is only 11 miles from Denver and James's commute won't actually be much longer since the bus will take the HOV lane. We looked at some homes last night and we loved one of the houses until we realized that the kids from the subdivision would go to my school. I'm not so sure I want that. So, we are going to continue looking in other subdivisions that don't feed into my school. One of my friends from college moved to Denver a few years ago and we are hoping to find a house in her neighborhood. We are going again this weekend and hopefully we will put a contract on a house. I want to move before I'm huge and it's hot! It will be like Christmas all over again when we get to sort through our stuff from the garage. We have a lot of baby stuff and I'm excited to see what we have!

Our Story

Our little sweet pea (now the size of a prune)

We hope you liked the slideshow surprise! We were very surprised and thrilled to find out I was pregnant. It still doesn't feel real. We went for an ultrasound a few weeks ago and it was amazing to see the baby's heartbeat. I'm due in September and already feel like I'm beginning to show. Maybe this could be due to the fact that I'm ALWAYS starving and exhausted all the time. Humm.. for some reason I don't feel like working out as much as I used to and James thinks I have a case of narcolepsy. Seriously, I can sit down to watch a favorite show and the next thing I know it's 10:00 and I feel completely out of it! I also get hot flashes. One day I was reading a book to the kids and one of them raised her hand and said, "Mrs. C, your face is really red, are you okay?" I told her I just needed a drink of water. The only thing that seems to cure it is food. Darn. I feel like eating always makes me feel better. I really can't complain though because I don't have a lot of morning sickness. Needless to say, we are beyond excited for the prune!

We are happy with this new chapter in our lives. Isn't it amazing how life works? We thought we had everything planned out a year ago and look where we are now. We didn't think we were going to have biological children (at least not anytime soon). Adoption was our first choice for starting a family. We went through a life changing event a few years ago (medical) and realized how precious life is. Life meant something different and we felt called to adopt a child. We also didn't even know if we could have biological children so adoption just felt natural to us. Then we went through everything we went through and now we see things from a different perspective. A good friend said that it took them losing a child to open their hearts to adoption and it took losing the twins to open our hearts to biological children. We still believe that adoption is in our future. For now we are going to be happy with our wonderful gift. We hope you all will continue to follow along with our journey.

Surprise Ending :)

Here is a slide show of some recent pictures! Be sure to turn on the captions in the lower left corner. Enjoy!

Elk, Bighorn Sheep, Oh My

On Saturday we got up early and drove to Rocky Mountain National Park to go to a snowshoeing event. It is an annual event on Valentine's Day where different snowshoe vendors let people borrow equipment to try out snowshoeing for free. We had such a great day filled with wildlife sightings and breathtaking views.

Along the way, we stopped in Estes Park to see:

The family of elk strolling on the bike path next to the road.

Bighorn sheep grazing along the road

More Bighorns hanging out on the rocks

Can you believe how close the people got? The sheep didn't mind cars but seemed concerned as they approached.

Inside Rocky Mountain: A pretty bird


Yes, all of the specks are elk resting in the field. We just saw on the news that there are too many elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. We believe it now!

Snowshoes

Before we head up

Action Photo: Heavy feet

Breathtaking view

How do you top a Sunggie for Valentine's?

Nothing says love like Bacon AND Chocolate!

Snuggierific Valentine

Last night James went to get a hair cut and said he had to make a detour on his way home. When he got home he was beaming with excitement. He told me that he couldn't wait to give me my Valentine's Day gift. We usually don't do anything extravagant but this year tops them all! This is what he gave me... Yes girls, I know you are jealous of this one...

We always make fun of the commercial and say we want one but never go through with the purchase. I must say that I put the snuggie on and that's all I remember from the rest of the night. Oh what snuggie bliss.............................

We all have our moments...

The other night I saw an article about the Blankets for Babies fundraiser to help Vietnamese orphanages. I read a letter written by the director of the orphanage where the twins currently reside. It broke my heart. It really just tore me apart thinking about how those babies are still living in the orphanage. I know they are loved but orphanages are struggling because of increased economic hardship. I wish something could be different and that they were home with us.
Even though we have hope for the future we still miss the boys. We have had to go on with our lives but we do have our moments where the fact that we won't bring them home really hits hard. We just pray that they are well taken care of and loved.

Our Apologies for being bad bloggers.

We haven't been the best about updating our blog as of late. That's also to say we haven't done a whole lot that we consider blog worthy. We've been house shopping (unsuccessfully). Real estate in Denver is still pretty pricey. We've also had some eye opening moments working out a budget to see what we can really afford. We didn't make much money on the sale of our home and thus we're lighter in the down payment department than we would like. We'll keep looking and hopefully sooner or later the right place will come along. The current economic times do make it a bit scary to be house shopping, but we're motivated for many reasons. Tripping over each other daily in our tiny rental house, and never being able to find anything in our one car attached storage facility are just the tip of the ice berg. So, we promise to write more frequent and interesting posts in the near future. Until then here are a couple random pictures to tide you over (since people really want pictures anyway).

Weekend

Some highlights of the weekend include: 60 degree weather, A LOT of driving around to look at neighborhoods and houses, two nice dinners out, and a day full of skiing (it wasn't the highlight of my weekend but it was beautiful at least.) I practice turning all day and kind of have it down. My problem is that I get nervous when I go too fast and lose control. Not fun. Maybe I can make it to the big ski lift next time. I should just go for it next time (easier said than done). James is already zooming down the blue slopes and I am jealous. Guys are more daring, right?

This week we are going to have weather in the high 60's and maybe even 70! Is it January??? Too bad I have to go back to work tomorrow. I will just have to leave right after school so I can make it home before dark.

We are so excited about the inauguration tomorrow. We have seen so many amazing stories of people making the journey to Washington D.C. We get to watch it with our kids tomorrow, which I hope they will always remember that momentous moment in history.

City or Suburbs??

We are renting a tiny house in a nice area in the city of Denver. The one problem with it is it is tiny. We are constantly bumping into things and a majority of our things are in boxes in our one car storage facility. We have been house hunting and just can't decide where we want to live. Many people want to live in the city of Denver because it is convenient and there are many nice areas. The problem is that people are scraping homes and building million dollar houses in many areas. We can't afford one of the bigger million + dollar homes and let me tell you that the market is saturated with them. Every street you drive on in the city there are enormous brand new homes for sell.

We love the convenience of living in the city and it is close to James's work. He just walks down the street to get on the bus and it is only about a 15 to 20 minute bus ride. We also have kind of established ourselves in the area, meaning we have new doctors, favorite restaurants, and stores. The city is nice but not as good for James to go biking. Also, the Denver public schools are okay but you have to really do research to make sure the neighborhood school is good.

The idea of living in the suburbs is appealing. It is less expensive and we would be able to get a larger house with a view of the mountains. There are many great school districts in the suburbs. The only problem is that it wouldn't be close to James's work. I have the tough commute this year because I am commuting to the suburbs and traffic is not fun. It usually takes me 30-40 minutes in the morning and 40-60 in the afternoon (on a good day). The traffic around Denver is icky and when it snows it is miserable. I had a horrible drive the other day but James's ride on the bus didn't really take any longer. I am hoping to stay at home for a few years when we have kids so I'm not really concerned with my drive. I don't want James to have to commute very far. Most of the suburbs we are looking into are around 20 miles away from downtown Denver and it may be more difficult for James to ride the bus. Then he would get stuck in traffic and come home exhausted.

Anyone have any insights? We do love the city but the suburbs would be nice too. It's hard to decide between an older, smaller home with character or a larger, newer home in the suburbs.

Still Here

Whew.. it has been a week. I'm going to let James write a post about our skiing adventure because it was kind of funny. I started back to school on Monday without kids which was nice because I got lots of work done and felt like I was ready for the kids to come on Tuesday. Tuesday morning the kids came in all excited to talk about their Christmas breaks. I was shocked when after the bell our school secretary brought a new student and his mother. I had not idea and had nothing ready. I felt horrible! That was not a good way to start my day. Then on Tuesday night I got sick and couldn't go to school on Wednesday. It was that horrible stomach sickness. I slept and got sick all day. I felt so bad that I didn't even want to turn on the t.v. I still don't feel quite normal and feel behind in so many things. The house is a complete disaster and I haven't done any school stuff this week. At least it is the weekend!

James will write a post about our skiing lessons. Let's just say that we didn't finish the third lesson because of soreness and bruises. We will probably reschedule it sometime. I will say that I do enjoy the Spring and Summer outdoor activities more than the winter but at least we have something to do in the winter.

Almost 2009

It is just so hard to believe that it is almost 2009! Wow, where did the time go? As we traveled home we reflected on 2008. It hasn't been the best year but wasn't the worst either. It was definitely a memorable year; one that we won't ever forget. From the highs of James's new job and a move to CO, to the lows of losing the twins. We can look back and do the "what if's" but instead we are thinking toward our future. This year we have been reminded that life just doesn't happen according to our plans. We have learned that life happens and you have to keep faith and deal with things as they happen.

We closed on our house on the 29th of December and are so excited to move on with our lives. 2009 is going to be a fresh start for us. I hope 2009 is wonderful for all of us.

Happy New Year!

A Lot of Traveling

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

We were in four states over six days. Even though we had to take numerous flights and had one major delay we had a great time with our families. I always get sad after Christmas because I know that we will wait another year to see some of our family.

We are happy to be back in CO and are leaving tomorrow for a skiing extravaganaza. We are staying in Vail and are taking three half day lessons. By Saturday we should be confident enough at skiing to ski on Blues. We will see! If we aren't, we are promised lessons until we can ski on the Blue. Then we will have a mountain pass for the rest of the season!

Happy Holidays!

We will be off tomorrow to see our families for the holidays. We are so excited to see everyone. We haven't seen some of our extended families for a year. We'll be back before New Years and then will head up in the mountains to do some skiing. We hope to be a lot better at skiing after three days of lessons. We'll see.

It is so nice to have some time off school. My year is now about half over. Hopefully we will have good news sometime in the New Year! :)

Happy Holidays!

Snow Play

I have a feeling our backyard is going to continuously be covered with snow until March. We still had snow in the backyard from the last snow and on Saturday night/Sunday morning we got more snow. We had a great time playing in the snow, especially Molly and James. Poor Molly needs snow boots because the snow got between her paws and she kept lifting them up because they were cold.
Oh yeah, did I mention how cold it was today? It was -15 degrees this morning. I have never been in a place that was that cold. James and I left the house to go to the store and the thermometer on the car said 0. I wonder if it goes below 0?

Let It Snow!

We loved the Spring and Summer here in Denver but I'm not so sure we are ready for the snow! Last week we got aobut 4 inches of snow one morning and my drive to work was not fun. It was the kind of snow that would have canceled school in St. Louis. I was still shaking when I finally arrived at school an hour after I left the house. I have to get used to it I guess because snows are frequent here but at least it is sunny and the snow is usually gone by late afternoon. People get excited when it snows and it isn't a big deal. It still feels like a big deal to me though. We are supposed to get 2-6 inches tonight through tomorrow morning and I am already dreading the drive. It will be okay and I will get used to it, I guess.

I am ready for the winter break. Two weeks off sounds so good right now. The kids are very hyper and I just need to make it through until next Friday, which will be a crazy day with the winter party and all.

The kids are really cute though. They are excited for Santa to come and have written some great letters. My 2nd graders had a music performance last week and one came to school the next day and told me that he knew the tooth fairy was hiding in the audience. They are always saying funny things. That's what makes teaching worth it.

Have a great week everyone!

Sold!!

We have another thing to be thankful for today. We have sold our house back in St. Louis! We are so happy to be able to move on and the closing date is December 29th!

Have a great weekend everyone. We have both of our work holiday parties this weekend. I love the holiday season!

It's been a year

It is hard to believe that we received the referral of the twins a year ago (and a few days). That was the best day of our lives and then everything unraveled before us. Some days are harder than others but those beautiful boys are never far away from our thoughts. We think about them all the time and hope that they get the family they deserve. It is difficult going into our tiny garage and seeing all of the boxes because most of them are full of things for the boys.

Sometimes we do think that we should have done things differently but we didn't have anyone to learn from (we didn't know of that many other RFE's at that time) and our agency was worthless when it came to helping us.

Even though it has been such a hard year full of heartache we are still hopeful that God has a plan for us and those boys. We still love them and always will. It is just so hard thinking about another adoption. I know our hearts will welcome a baby but what if things don't work out for us again? Having faith only gets you so far. We are still thinking about the possibilities.

We do have so much to be thankful for and we need to focus on those things. We can't live our lives with what if's because we still believe we made the best decision based on the information we had. It doesn't make it easier though.

Thanksgiving

I can still hear the slot machines in my head! We had such a great time in Vegas but it feels good to be home. Las Vegas is not a cheap place to go. Where else can you spend $60 dollars on an appetizer and two drinks at any restaurant? Walking around Vegas during the holidays you would have no idea our economy isn't doing well right now. There were people everywhere and loads of foreign tourists. At times it felt like we were in a different country.

We weren't real lucky with the slot machines (I don't like them because they just eat my money). One night when James was playing poker I had to ask for more money because I kept losing. Luckily James did well with poker and covered some of my losses.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We had some good meals and had tickets for KA. We went in the theater and were waiting for the show to begin. All of a sudden all of the lights went on and someone made an announcement that the show was canceled because of technical difficulties. Everyone thought he was joking and nobody got up. James realized he wasn't and we rushed to the ticket line and got to exchange for tickets on Friday night. I'm glad we got to go. It was absolutely amazing, especially the set. We were mesmerized!

We had a great time but are glad to be home. It was nice to have a mini vacation.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.